By the way, as we now appear agreed that the Spirit of God should be actually received and enjoyed by the saints, whether that agreement be enforced by the terms of Scripture merely, or from the heart, God knows. There remains but a single point of importance in our mind. That is not, and has not been, whether the Spirit of God is actually received and enjoyed by the children of God; but whether any teachings are communicated to man, or revelations made, either before or after conversion, to saint or sinner, except through the senses. Are not the revelations of God inscribed upon the sacred pages of the Bible, the only teachings from heaven, for both the church and the world, and are not these imparted to man through the senses? We do not believe that there are any revelations from God, or teachings, binding upon man, for saint or sinner, only those in the Bible, and these are imparted to man through the senses. If this is sensuous philosophy, then we are in for it.
[A] A discussion of the subject of Spiritual Influence was carried on among the Disciples during the Decade, beginning in the year 1856. Benjamin Franklin’s position, and indeed the gist of the controversy, is presented in the opening and closing paragraphs of an editorial in the A. C. Review.
[SECTARIANISM.]
MUCH as has been said upon the evils of sectarianism, within the last forty or fifty years, it is still true, that no one has given the subject too high a coloring. Its evils are equal to the most brilliant description we have had. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive how any one could speak, in too strong terms, of this one evil; yet, the sin of partyism, like many other sins of these times, is so fashionable and popular, that it is scarcely seen to be a sin at all. It is true, all seem to look upon it as a sin, for a man to create partyism and strife in the party to which he belongs, or any other party. But, to keep up the parties now in existence, and defend the peculiarities upon which they are predicated, and from which they receive their very existence, is considered serving God. Now, if it can be considered service to the Lord, to build up and keep up that old mother and mistress of all heresy, the Roman Catholic Church, then, why was not the very mystery of iniquity, already working in John’s day, doing service to God, in originating that grand establishment of sin and iniquity? Surely, it is giving as much glory to God to set on foot a great or a small religious scheme, as to keep it in motion after it is once started.
If it is doing the will of God to build up and sustain the Episcopalian Church now; surely, he was doing the will of God who originated it. This, no one will doubt. The same is true of the Lutheran, the Presbyterian, the Methodist Episcopal and all the indescribable parties which have descended from them. If it is service to the Lord now, to build them up, it was equally as great service to him to originate them. It is a fact, too, that all these parties honor their originators as the greatest and best men the world has had.
Now, how much should the opinions of these parties be considered worth? or, how much are the most earnest and solemn decisions they ever made, to be regarded? They would consider us highly uncharitable, if we did not regard these decisions as most solemnly true. Well, if the Roman Catholic Church ever made an earnest, an authoritative decision, in the world, it was when she declared Martin Luther a heretic. And what man, since his day, has broken off from an old party and established a new one, without most earnestly and solemnly being declared a heretic? No such man can be mentioned. The old party always decides that a new one, that breaks off from it, is a heresy. In this way, all the parties now in existence, have been decided heresies, and the leaders in them heretics. Yet, these heresies, as they have styled them, headed by those who have been decided heretics, have grown up, and are now called “evangelical churches.” How is all this? If the Lord never authorized them to be started, did he authorize their perpetuation? And if he did authorize them to be started, were not the old parties awfully wicked in condemning them, when they were doing the will of the Lord?